A widow’s cry: ‘Where were you?’

When the detective came to tell Arlia Davis that her husband, Tyrone, had been killed, she ordered him out of the house.

Blinded by grief, hardly aware, Arlia cursed. She raged. “Where were you?” she demanded. “You were there for the broken taillight. Where were you for this?”

Sheriff’s Det. Richard Tomlin had heard it before. Many victims’ relatives are frustrated with the police, he said: They want protection but feel harassed.

To Arlia, a widow at 24, it seemed that Tyrone, 23, was of concern to others only when he was a suspect. When he was a victim, the world seemed to turn its back. Where were the police? she asked. Where was the press?

Tyrone’s slaying at 10323 S. Normandie Ave. on Jan. 15 was still unsolved seven months later. The media ignored it. To the world, “It’s just gang members,” said Arlia’s mother, Betty Richards. “It’s not on the priority list.”

Tyrone was no criminal. He was the doting father of Tyrone Jr., 4, and Alanah, 2. Before marrying Arlia, he had asked her parents’ permission.

Arlia later apologized to Tomlin for cursing him. She said she believed the detective was doing his best. But she still feels the sting of the world’s indifference. Tyrone’s death was “never on TV, but I turn on the news and see a cat stuck in a tree,” she said.